


The People are Singing

by virdant



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Boyband, Entertainment Industry AU, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-20
Updated: 2013-04-20
Packaged: 2017-12-08 23:32:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/767375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virdant/pseuds/virdant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cosette hasn't had a successful single since she was 8. Eponine just wants Marius to notice her. Enjolras wants to change the world <s>through song</s> through his position as leader of a top-charting boyband. Javert just wants to find Jean Valjean again and get him to release 19 more years of albums and singles.</p><p>Or: What would happen if Les Mis wasn't about French revolutionaries and the injustices of the world, and was about boybands and the entertainment industry instead.</p><p> </p><p>also known as "that les mis boyband au" to anybody who's talked to me about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody, welcome to the main text for "that les mis boyband AU"! For more snippets, please check out: [tumblr](http://doyouheartheboybandssing.tumblr.com). You can find snippets (mostly from part 4, at the moment) there!
> 
> This story would not exist if it weren't for some wonderful amazing people.  
> [Trell / Selkath](http://toidarian.tumblr.com): Enabler, and overall horrible person.  
> [Rei](http://reiicharu.livejournal.com): Other enabler, source of boyband + les mis knowledge.  
> [Mikachi](http://gimmemacaronsplease.tumblr.com/): Other source of les mis knowledge.  
> [Pann](http://pann-blings.tumblr.com): recipient of snippet spam.
> 
> Please direct all blame at Trell / Selkath, who is the only reason this story even got written. Please direct more blame at Rei, and Mikachi, who are the only reasons this story is even slightly canon-based, given I don't remember much of the movie and have never seen the musical or read the book.

Cosette hasn’t had a single successful single since she was eight. Not since she was with the Thenardiers, releasing single after single and album after album. Sometimes, when her adoptive father says that the Thenardiers would have destroyed her voice if she had stayed, she believes him.

 

Other times, she turns on the television and Eponine’s face is on every channel, and wonders if it might have been better if she didn’t leave.

 

*

 

So maybe it’s not actually Eponine’s face on every channel, but all five of Les Amis, with Marius Pontmercy front-and-center.

 

 

*

 

Eponine has the biggest crush on Marius Pontmercy. And by biggest crush, she means she really appreciates his musical expression and creative vision.

 

The first time she met Marius Pontmercy, Les Amis was promoting their latest album _The Barricade_ and she was promoting her latest single _Rain Drops_. They ran into each other backstage—literally, Eponine crashing into his broad chest, and he caught her by the arms. He asked if she was alright, and she said something that sounded like yes before she looked up and _wow_ , he had gorgeous eyes.

 

“You’re Eponine, right?” he asked. “I really liked your single.”

 

She said, “Yes,” faintly. “And you’re Marius Pontmercy.” She tried to think of something to say that wasn’t, “You’ve got really warm hands” or “you’ve got a great body” or “Your eyes are gorgeous.”

 

He let go. “I’ve got to go,” he said. “I’ll see you around, Eponine!”

 

“Yeah,” she said, a little vaguely. “Yeah. See you around, Marius.”

 

 

*

 

Marius isn’t actually entirely too sure how he joined Les Amis. He thinks it might be because his grandfather said that he should study business, work in the family company, just get a MBA, we’ll pay for it, and then come back and we’ll give you everything you need.

 

So when he saw the pamphlet, the advertisement, heard Joly mention it in the dorms, he didn’t think, he just found the most flattering picture he had and attached it to his application.

 

A week later he was signing a contract to be a part of Les Amis.

 

 

*

 

Enjolras wasn’t going to be a singer—let along a _boyband_ member. But the people on the news aren’t students or protesters or even politicians. The people on the news are shirtless men posing before cameras or women stripping their clothes off before hoards of desperate grasping hands and shrill voices hoarse from screaming.

 

And then Grantaire says, “Say, Apollo, I sent in an application for you.”

 

“What?”

 

Grantaire offers him a beer—Enjolras refuses—and says, “Well, all you watch on television is news about celebrities, and you’re gorgeous, so I figured I’d apply for you.”

 

“Apply for what?” Enjolras screeches.

 

He says, “That boyband, of course.”

 

 

*

 

Later, Grantaire admits, “I might have been drunk when I made that decision.”

 

 

*

 

The interviewer wants to know why all of them joined Les Amis—Enjolras says something (constrained to a script after his first impassioned ~~rant~~ speech about how Grantaire was a drunkard who should learn not to forge his signature) about wanting to spread his voice all throughout the world (it took Combeferre three hours of discussion with their producers before they came to this compromise).

 

Grantaire turns to Enjolras and says that he’ll follow Enjolras into revolution if needed, so what does a boyband matter, and the interviewer giggles and probably writes something down about homoerotic subtext, which their producers say is ‘acceptable’ and ‘should be subtly encouraged’. (This—Grantaire translates—is permission to molest Enjolras as much as possible in front of cameras.)

 

Combeferre, who’s always been the smart one, mild-mannered and thoughtful and nothing like Enjolras and his visions of changing the world, smiles and says something politely politic about how he’s always dreamed of making people smile. It sounds like something that their producers wrote for him, and it has nothing to do with a bet, a realization, and Enjolras, at the audition, saying “Just imagine reaching the entire world with one song.”

 

Courfeyrac, shameless, flirts with the interviewer for a good three minutes and doesn’t actually say anything.

 

Marius is the last to talk, and when the interviewer turns expectantly to him he blushes and stammers something about just seeing a note for it—just pure coincidence.

 

Enjolras rolls his eyes so obnoxiously the interviewer sees. She giggles shrilly, not sure how to deal with such obvious animosity.

 

Grantaire takes the time to not-very-subtly grope Enjolras.

 

 

*

 

When Les Amis is promoting _The Barricade_ , the producers want to film Les Amis building a pillow fort.

 

“A pillow fort,” Enjolras says, a bit disbelieving. “This is a song about revolution!” He gesticulates wildly. “It’s about the French Revolution and freedom and freeing the poor from the shackles of poverty, and you want us to _build a pillow fort?”_

 

Yes, the producers say. It’ll be a very intimate MV, let the audience get in touch with their softer side, they’re called Les Amis for a reason, very friendly, very good.

 

Enjolras almost takes off Courfeyrac’s head with his grand sweeping gestures as he protests. Combeferre makes an attempt to pacify Enjolras—mostly likely because the producers are nearby, even their managers have already learned that once you get Enjolras going, it’s impossible to make him stop. Marius makes a dramatic pitying face.

 

Grantaire just goes to find some hard liquor. Really, _pillow fort_? He doesn’t know what the producers are thinking.

 

 

*

 

Eponine says, “Isn’t that your sixth whiskey?”

 

They only met an hour ago, in the VIP room of a club that everybody wants to get into. Grantaire had a surprisingly easy job of it. Eponine was there too, and even though Grantaire didn’t really know her beyond: ‘That girl who Marius knew who also sang love songs’, he sat down next to her because they had to at least pretend to play nice, even though this was the VIP room and if there were paparazzi, nobody would ever come to this club again.

 

And it’s actually his seventh, but Eponine wasn’t there for his first one, which was from the thermos that he kept hidden from his manager, so he forgives her. Grantaire drinks, says, “The producers want us to build a pillow fort.”

 

Eponine offers, “Mine want me to sing on stage while pouring buckets of cold water over my head.”

 

“Want me to buy you a drink?”

 

“God, yes.”

 

 

*

 

God.

 

God, Javert was sick of hearing about God. About God’s goodness. About God’s grace and how he bought the souls of people who were willing to repent.

 

Javert didn’t have anything to repent.

 

He hasn’t personally produced anybody since Jean Valjean and the album that brought both of them to the top of the world. _24601_ was years ago, and every now and then it wanders back onto the chart.

 

He doesn’t think too much about how when the contract was over—five years, and then he signed again for another 10, fifteen years of working together producing music—Jean Valjean marched out and refused to even listen to Javert’s attempts to renegotiate his contract. Valjean wouldn’t listen to any reason—just insisted that Javert was the devil, that he’d been given a calling, and God had other plans for him.

 

Javert hasn’t produced anybody since Jean Valjean, over ten years ago. But every now and then he catches a glimpse of something that might have been Jean Valjean—if they had stuck together, if he hadn’t disappeared and broke all the terms of their contract—

 


	2. Between You and Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cosette wants her voice to be heard, Marius has encountered the love of his life, Enjolras is not pleased, Courfeyrac co-hosts a radio show about love with Marius, and Eponine just wants Marius to notice her.

 

 

The first single Cosette releases after she leaves the Thenardiers is called _Start of my Life_. Her father—adoptive, he says, sometimes, when he’s feeling particularly hesitant about his place in her life—helps produce it; he was the one who supported her lawsuit, who hired the lawyers that accused the Thenardiers of a slave contract and got her out from under their care and into his.

 

They write the song together—that’s how Cosette puts it. Papa says that the song is all Cosette; he just helped on the arrangement, maybe a little bit of advice on the lyrics and the bridge.

 

Still, they produce the single in the basement studio that Papa pretends he doesn’t care about and doesn’t spend hours in just working on snatches of songs. For the months they work on the song, Ultime Fauchelevent looks nothing like the quiet, God-fearing old man who spends every Sunday leading worship from the pews.

 

 _Start of my Life_ doesn’t chart, doesn’t change her life the way she was hoping it would. She’s lost years between being an eight-year-old girl under an oppressive management, and her fans have moved on to greener pastures.

 

She says, “I can still sing,” to her father, and he says, “I know, Cosette. But they don’t.”

 

♥

 

Papa suggests waiting a bit before her second single. Polish up her high notes a little more, give her low notes a bit more substance. “You don’t have to rush,” he says, and she knows that he’s thinking about the way she had to re-learn her voice, find a different comfort zone. They’ve been working towards this comeback for years—she has, at least; Ultime Fauchelevent wanted her to wait a little longer: let your voice recover a little more, you don’t have to rush.

 

She wants to scream that doesn’t this result show that they waited too long? Eponine’s charting, Les Amis have the pre-teen and teenage girl audience wrapped tightly around their fingers. There’s nothing for her left but the scraps they don’t want.

 

Cosette says, “Alright,” in a small voice. Because maybe he’s right. Maybe—

 

♥

 

Cosette meets Marius Pontmercy when she goes to guest on a small radio show hosted by somebody Papa knows. It’s strange, because Cosette didn’t realize that Papa had friends—or acquaintances—from outside of church. But the radio shot host isn’t from church; he laughs so hard that he almost falls out of his chair when Cosette asks if that’s how he knows Papa.

 

Papa shrugs, smiling a little.

 

But he’s excited the first time they talk—he’s willing play Cosette’s song. He says, “And you produced it?” to Papa, and seems disappointed when Papa says yes, he produced it, no, he’s not singing anymore.

 

Cosette laughs, because Papa sings every week in church so loudly and vibrantly that they’re talking about getting Papa to record a CD of hymns. She almost says as much, but Papa always looks so uncomfortable when they talk about singing that she doesn’t. Instead, they work out the details of how she’ll perform her song on the radio.

 

She’ll sing _Start of my Life_ live, and it’ll get played to the ten people who listen to the 1 am radio show. It still sends a thrill through her—she’s going to be _performing_.

 

She almost dances in the hallway of the building, but there’s a group of people passing through and Papa’s always insisted she be dignified and refined.

 

Marius is in that group—not to record for the same show, but finishing up a meeting for a radio show that’s in the works. His manager corrals him along, but their eyes meet, and Cosette feels a brief moment of surprise—is that _Marius Pontmercy_ from _Les Amis_? And then they’re walking past each other, Cosette being hustled along by her father to practice, Marius being pulled away by his manager.

 

She practices: sings into the microphone, heart soaring with song, and all she can think of are Marius Pontmercy’s eyes—locked onto hers.

 

She thinks that maybe her life is starting now.

 

♥

 

Marius Pontmercy doesn’t really _want_ a radio show.

 

Enjolras was practically foaming at the mouth at getting his hands on a microphone in a broadcasting studio—when he heard that some broadcasting company wanted to start having Les Amis host a show, he practically jumped onto the table to volunteer, and it took Combeferre and Courfeyrac to pull him down. (Grantaire was too busy laughing to help.) Their producer walked in and took one look at the scene before turning to Marius—who had been trying valiantly to pretend he didn’t know any of them—and said, “Marius, you’ll be hosting the show.”

 

“You can’t let Marius have the radio show!” Enjolras shouted at the producer’s back, still on top of the table. “He’ll talk about love! He’ll talk about girls and falling in love and _flowers_ and what the language of flowers are, you can’t!”

 

The producer ignored Enjolras and closed the door on the way out.

 

“That is exactly why,” the manager said dryly, after Grantaire had stopped laughing to help Combeferre and Courfeyrac. Between the three of them—Marius was too busy gaping at where the producer had been—they got Enjolras down. Grantaire helpfully sat on Enjolras to prevent any more dramatic speeches.

 

“This is completely unreasonable!” Enjolras shouted, surprisingly loudly, considering Grantaire’s hip was digging into his abs. “Marius is the last person who should be allowed a radio show!”

 

“Girls _like_ hearing about falling in love and the language of flowers,” their manager said. “Marius gets the radio show. Maybe if you’re well behaved, and his show is successful, you’ll get one too.”

 

♥

 

Enjolras refuses to look at Marius for the rest of rehearsal. Combeferre and Courfeyrac help by standing right in their line of sight whenever the choreography can permit it—which is never, because Marius is in front for 90% of their performances and so is always in Enjolras’ peripheral vision. Grantaire helps by getting drunk and forcing Enjolras to perform his leaderly duties and take care of his drunk-and-hungover bandmate.

 

Their manager gives Grantaire a long-suffering look which says, “You are never getting a radio show.”

 

Marius isn’t entirely sure how he survives rehearsal, but at 5pm he’s shuffled into a car and taken to a dinner meeting with a bunch of executives where they talk about his new, upcoming radio show. The dinner takes three hours, and then they take him to the broadcasting studio where he meets the crew and shakes a bunch of hands and tries to keep smiling even though it’s hard. His cheeks are starting to hurt a little when he’s finally allowed out of the room and the first thing he notices is the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen.

 

He doesn’t even know her name, but he thinks he’s in love.

 

♥

 

He spends the next day in a complete daze, and Enjolras kicks him in the heels twice when they’re doing choreography. Grantaire helpfully offers him some wine (in a clear water bottle), which Enjolras confiscates before Marius can actually get drunk. Then he tells Marius to stop daydreaming and start practicing.

 

Marius protests, “You weren’t there that night, you don’t know how it feels. She’s like a burst of light!”

 

Enjolras scoffs, “Who cares about your lonely soul.” He marched towards the speakers—“We’re in rehearsal! There is a world to change through song!”

 

“Oh god.” Combeferre’s mouth twists in either amusement or horror.

 

Grantaire offers (while Enjolras is climbing up the makeshift barricade that will be part of their stage design to make a speech) some more wine—this time from an opaque bottle. “What’s this about a girl?”

 

“She’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever met,” Marius says, before he can stop himself, effectively cutting off Enjolras’ speech before he can start it. “She’s like a night as bright as day! She’s like—”

 

Grantaire takes the wine away from Marius to take a long, fortifying gulp of it himself.

 

♥

 

After Marius stutters through the first rehearsal for the radio show, the producers look like they might take Enjolras, even with his revolutionary ideals.

 

Instead, Courfeyrac ends up joining Marius on their new radio show—which is not, as Enjolras predicted, about the language of flowers. Rather, it’s Courfeyrac assisting all the young ladies with their relationships, Marius making woeful, sympathetic noises on the sidelines and talking about his lonely soul.

 

♥

 

 “Hello and you’re listening to Les Amours du Les Amis! I’m your host, Courfeyrac, and this is my co-host, Marius! Say hello, Marius.”

 

“Hello,” Marius’ voice says.

 

“Today we’ve started rehearsals for our concert tour! Enjolras is very excited about the props we’re going to be using, don’t you agree, Marius?”

 

“Yes,” Marius agrees, not very enthusiastically.

 

“Marius, you seem very distracted—what are you holding? Is that a _handkerchief_? Why do you have a handkerchief?”

 

Marius mumbles something unintelligible.

 

“Are you sure it’s hygienic to be sniffing that? Has that been in your pocket all day? No, Marius, really, why do you have a handkerchief? I didn’t think people even made them anymore!”

 

Another unintelligible mumble.

 

“Ah, so it’s a love token! That you… found on the ground?” A pause. “It soothes his lonely soul,” Courfeyrac adds in a not very quiet aside.

 

Marius exclaims, “She’s like the sun!” and Courfeyrac, catching the producer’s rapidly darkening expression, quickly interrupts with, “And the weather has been fantastic recently, hasn’t it? I’m really excited to go out and enjoy the fresh air! Please uh, always remember to get fresh air! And admire the flowers that are blooming! And oh, look at the time; it’s time for a commercial break!”

 

♥

 

Eponine calls in to Les Amours du Les Amis once, and gets through because she’s in the industry and their managers and producers have already planned this entire speech out. She says, “Hello, this is Eponine.”

 

“Eponine!” Courfeyrac exclaims gleefully, and it doesn’t even sound like he’s reading from a script, even though her manager made her call in and she’s pretty sure she’s been penciled in right next to ‘Talk about how music is the key to relieving suffering, oh, and buy our CDs please’. “How are you? I listened to your first single, you know, before I joined Les Amis.”

 

Eponine finds herself blushing. “Did you?” she chokes out awkwardly. She expected maybe a comment about “Raindrops”, or even “Let the Flowers Grow,” which was her album that came out half a year ago.

 

“Oh yes, Marius shared it with me. Marius, you remember that song? The one that goes like—” And then Courfeyrac sings the chorus.

 

Eponine takes in a deep breath.

 

She’s waiting for Marius to reply. He does, singing the bridge in his soft, clear tenor.

 

Something in her breath catches. She had almost forgotten about “Pretty Little Smiles”. She had been so young then, and listening to Marius sing the bridge—she’s always liked the bridge the most, even after she grew up and couldn’t listen to her childish voice wavering throughout the verses and chorus, she’s always liked the bridge.

 

“I haven’t thought of that song in years,” Eponine says.

 

♥

 

She hasn’t thought of Cosette in years.

 

Pretty little Cosette, singing of castles on clouds—she’s more talented than Eponine; Eponine only released a single because her parents own the company; Cosette is truly talented; they’re really overworking Cosette; makes sense too, Eponine’s not very good, is she; Cosette, she’s really something; Cosette, Cosette, Cosette.

 

Cosette and her pretty little smile, dreaming of castles on a cloud.

 

But Cosette isn’t here now, is she? She isn’t the one giggling with Marius and Courfeyrac, isn’t meeting all of Les Amis backstage, isn’t stealing sips of Grantaire’s wine when Enjolras isn’t looking, isn’t talking to Marius Pontmercy.

 

She’s always liked Marius, liked the way his smile illuminates his face under the bright stage lights. She likes the freckles that show after he’s scrubbed off the foundation and powder, likes the way he says “‘Ponine” when he’s distracted.

 

She likes that Marius is thinking of Eponine.

 

♥

 

“Eponine,” Marius says, in the hallway outside Les Amis’ dressing room. “I made a mix tape.”

 

Courfeyrac (pretending to be busy and not eavesdropping from his position just inside the ajar door) nods, an expression of suffering etched into his features. “He did. It took him twenty minutes to realize he couldn’t actually insert a CD into his iPad.”

 

Marius flushes.

 

Eponine giggles into her hand.

 

Courfeyrac continues, “So he actually tried to make mix _tape_. Like, he found a tape recorder.”

 

“Courfeyrac!” Marius hisses.

 

“And then,” Courfeyrac says loudly, “Grantaire found out what Marius was trying to do and stole Enjolras’ laptop.”

 

“Courfeyrac!” This time it’s Grantaire, shouting from inside the room.

 

“Alright, borrowed. Anyways, it turned out that everything on Enjolras’s laptop is password protected so Grantaire tried to steal—sorry, borrow— _mine_ but when I found out what he wanted to do we _borrowed_ Combeferre’s instead.”

 

Marius is flushing—all the way to the roots of his hair. Eponine wants to press her hand against his cheek until it cools down. She folds her hands before her and says, “Oh?” instead.

 

Marius holds out the CD to her. “Can you just listen to it and tell me it’s alright?”

 

Eponine takes the CD carefully, trying not to smile too wildly.

 

“It’s for that girl,” he continues. “The girl I saw at the radio station. I’m going to leave it there, in case she goes back, so she can get it. But I want to make sure… I want to make sure she’ll like it, so won’t you listen to it and tell me what you think, ‘Ponine?”

 

Eponine says, in a voice that sounds nothing like her own, “Of course I’ll do that for you, Marius.”

 

♥

 

During the fourth song, the one that talks about golden hair and blue eyes like the sun in the sky. Eponine thinks of Cosette and wants to snap the CD in half.

 

Instead, she tells Marius that it’s very good, that any girl would love to have it. He splutters and flushes, and Eponine says, “Can I keep it for a little longer?”

 

It can’t possibly be Cosette that Marius is giving the CD to. Why would Cosette even be at a broadcasting station?

 

So Eponine goes to the broadcasting station. She gets in because she’s Eponine Thenardier—her manager disapproves, but she ignores him, and there’s nothing he can really do when it’s her parents who are employing him.

 

(She does not think about the message boards, the ones that say that the only reason she’s still releasing singles is because her parents own the company.)

 

She steps into the lobby of the building, where Cosette stares back with wide blue eyes and golden curls. For a second, she thinks she can pretend that she doesn’t recognize Cosette—but she does, even if Cosette isn’t wearing a gray dress and her hair isn’t ragged and she no longer looks dark and ugly.

 

She says, “Eponine,” with wide eyes and a sweet smile and, “Is that really you?”

 

She’s wearing a floral dress and her blond curls are loosely pinned and her eyes are the color of the sky on a cloudless day.

 

Eponine says, “Cosette.” And then, more loudly, “What are you doing here?” She clutches her purse—Marius’ mix-tape is inside—and is about to step back before she remembers that Cosette is nothing, nothing, and she’s the one with hit singles and albums and she’s the one who Marius is looking at.

 

Cosette says, delightedly, “I’m so glad to see you again! We’ll have to catch up!”

 

“On what?” is on the tip of her tongue, but she bites it down, holds her purse a little more tightly, and agrees.

 

♥

 

Marius sees Eponine and the girl of his dreams in a coffee shop and doesn’t stop to think before he’s ducking behind a bush to gape.

 

His personal assistant manager, standing outside the bushes with his arms crossed, says, “Pontmercy, what on earth are you doing?”

 

A disembodied hand reaches from the bushes to grab the assistant manager by the wrist and drag him into the bushes as well.

 

“Don’t say anything!” Marius hisses. “You’ll scare her away!”

 

He crouches with an eye-roll. “You’re Marius Pontmercy,” he points out, not very unkindly. “Most girls come flocking to you and we have to beat them off with sticks.”

 

Marius stares. “That’s horrible,” he says.

 

“Metaphorical sticks,” the manager says, with another well-practiced eye-roll. “Now what on earth are you doing?”

 

Marius points into the window. “That’s _her_ ,” he says. “The girl with hair the color of the sun and eyes the color of the sky and her brow is like clouds and—”

 

“Who?”

 

“You know.” Marius gesticulates vaguely in the air. “Her. The girl I saw at the broadcasting station the other day.”

 

“Ah,” he says, uncomprehendingly but with just enough conviction. “The stalker fangirl?”

 

“She’s not a stalker fangirl!” Marius screeches.

 

“Marius?” Marius looked up to see Eponine staring at him, with the love of his life standing next to her. “Marius, what are you doing in that bush?”

 

He can’t stop staring at the girl next to Eponine, who stares back at him with wide blue eyes. She’s even more beautiful today than she was that day in the broadcasting station, and he didn’t think that was possible.

 

“Marius?” Eponine echoes.

 

He manages a noise that sounds vaguely like, “Hello, love of my life,” if one were experienced in interpreting grunts.

 

Luckily, the love of his life has musical interpretation down to an art form, and smiles—beams, really—back. “Hello,” she says kindly.

 

Marius promptly flushes bright red and stutters, “Hillo. I mean heylo. I mean hi. Hey. Hello.”

 

His manager grimaces and buries his face in his hands.

 

♥

 

(Later, he manages, “My name is Marius Pontmercy,” and she says, “And I’m Cosette,” with a smile as bright as the sun and he feels himself falling in love all over again because Cosette is the most beautiful name he’s ever heard.)

 

♥

 

At rehearsal, Marius declares, “Her name is Cosette.”

 

Courfeyrac falls off his chair, mouthing, “He actually talked to her?” to Combeferre, who just shrugs and smiles, vaguely, in baffled incomprehension. Courfeyrac remembers that their radio show is at some obscene time at night and none of Les Amis actually listen to it unless they’re required to call-in for some special episode, so they haven’t been getting every single one of Marius’ deep, emotionally drawn-out sighs of longing and heartache.

 

Enjolras opens his mouth to begin another speech on why Marius was not allowed to be interested in girls, but before he could say anything, Grantaire helpfully kicks his knees out and said, “Tell me more about this girl,” while handing over an opaque water bottle.

 

“That’s not water,” Enjolras says, “is it.”

 

Marius says, “She’s beautiful! She’s got a voice like a lark—”

 

“What do larks sound like?” Grantaire mutters.

 

“Really pretty, according to google,” Courfeyrac mutters back, on his phone.

 

“—and her eyes are like cornflowers—”

 

Courfeyrac helpfully looks that up too.

 

“—And her hair is the color of the sun with threads of gold—”

 

“Blonde,” Grantaire translates, looking fairly smug that he understood this statement. Enjolras doesn’t look impressed.

 

“And I could spend all day on her fair skin, like porcelain, or—”

 

“Or,” Enjolras interrupts loudly, “You could _strive towards a higher goal_ in life other than getting laid.”

 

“Enjolras!” Courfeyrac exclaims, clutching a hand to his heart. “How could you say that? Can’t you see that Marius’ love is pure? I bet they haven’t even held hands yet.”

 

Enjolras scowls. Combeferre hides a grin behind his hand. Marius flushes scarlet, and that’s all that they need to confirm that no, they haven’t even held hands yet.

 

Grantaire drawls, “Did you manage to get her phone number?”

 

Marius’ mouth drops in horror.

 

♥

 

His manager takes him aside and says, “Marius, we need to talk about this girl.”

 

Marius stares back, still distraught over the fact that he forgot to get Cosette’s number.

 

He says, not unkindly, “You can’t date this girl.”

 

Marius’ face freezes in a rictus of horror.

 

“I know this is hard to accept,” he says, “but you need to think of the band. Think of what dating this girl would do to your fanbase—they follow you because you’re single and they can nurse hopes of dating you, and Marius.” His manager meets his eyes squarely, “You need to stay single for image reasons.” His manager pats him on the shoulder. “I trust you to do the right thing.”

 

♥

 

Eponine locks herself in the studio when she gets there.

 

She’s watched Marius trip over his shoelaces in rehearsal multiple times. She’s watched Marius flush when Courfeyrac teases him. She’s never watched him stutter and trip and flush over a girl with hair the color of the sun and eyes the color of cornflowers.

 

The CD is still in her bag. She digs through her bag for it; her fingers catch on her phone, and she pulls that out instead. Cosette inputted her number hours earlier. She could text Cosette, set up a time to give Marius’ mix tape to her, do the right thing. Do the good thing. Be a good girl, Eponine, do this for us. We’re your parents, listen to us.

 

She’s tired of doing the right thing.

 

♥

 

That night, Cosette creeps down to the basement studio and carefully plinks out a melody on the keyboard.

 

She thinks she wants to record a duet with Marius. Just the two of them, hand-in-hand and hearts full of love. She curls her fingers around the keys, and doesn’t look up when Papa walks down and stands in the doorway.

 

For a long time, they don’t say anything. Cosette breaks the silence, “Papa, what if I don’t want to wait?”

 

He says, in his quiet, grave way, “Cosette—”

 

“I want to sing!” Cosette whirls on the bench. “I’m not a child anymore, Papa. You keep telling me to wait, and you wouldn’t let me audition for that singing competition.” Her hands are clammy where they’re clutching at each other, like they’re separate from her body. “Papa,” she says. “Papa, I just want to sing. I want the world to hear me sing.”

 

He’s quiet for a long time before he says, “The world is a dark place. Darker than you can imagine.” He walks forward to play a harsh discordant chord on the keyboard. “There are things that you are better not knowing.”

 

Cosette says, “I’d rather know the truth.”

 

Without hesitating, Papa says, “Truth is given by God.” And then, before he leaves, “I know that you will always do the right thing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow us on do youheartheboybandssing.tumblr.com for snippets!
> 
> Part 3, Divine Intervention, will be up whenever I finish writing it, which can be anywhere between next week and 3 months later.
> 
> Have a snippet from part 3 though.
> 
> In the last interview he gives, Jean Valjean says that his life started with a bishop and silver candlesticks.
> 
> After the interviewer’s thanked him and he’s alone, Javert comes in and shouts at him. “What do you mean, you’ve found God? What do you mean, you’re leaving the industry? You were on hiatus for a month and this is what happened?”
> 
> A month ago, Valjean would have shouted back, but this time he just says, peacefully, “God has other plans for me, Javert.”
> 
> “Your contract has other plans for you!” he roars back.
> 
> Valjean says, “I’ll pray for your soul.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow boyband!AU at: doyouheartheboybandssing.tumblr.com


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